thumb|John F. Kennedy delivering his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention in 1960.|275x275pxThe term New Frontier was used by Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kennedy in his acceptance speech, delivered July 15, to the 1960 Democratic National Convention at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The phrase became a label for his administration's domestic and foreign programs.

In the words of Robert D. Marcus: "Kennedy entered office with ambitions to eradicate poverty and to raise America's eyes to the stars through the space program."

Origin

Kennedy proclaimed in his speech:

Legislation

Among the legislation passed by Congress during the Kennedy administration, unemployment benefits were expanded, aid was provided to cities to improve housing and transportation, funds were allocated to continue the construction of a national highway system started under Eisenhower, a water pollution control act was passed to protect the country's rivers and streams, and an agricultural act to raise farmers' incomes was made law. A significant amount of anti-poverty legislation was passed by Congress, including increases in social security benefits and in the minimum wage, several housing bills, and aid to economically distressed areas.

A few anti-recession public works packages, were introduced. Major expansions and improvements were made in Social Security (including retirement at 62 for men), hospital construction, library services, family farm assistance and reclamation. Food stamps for low-income Americans were reintroduced, food distribution to the poor was increased, and there was an expansion in school milk and school lunch distribution. The most comprehensive farm legislation since 1938 was carried out, with expansions in rural electrification, soil conservation, crop insurance, farm credit, and marketing orders.

In September 1961, the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency was established as the focal point in government for the "planning, negotiation, and execution of international disarmament and arms control agreements."

Altogether, the New Frontier witnessed the passage of a broad range of social and economic reforms. However, proposed legislation which was considered more revolutionary languished in Congress. According to Theodore White, under John F. Kennedy, more new legislation was actually approved and passed into law than at any other time since the 1930s. When Congress recessed in the latter part of 1961, 33 out of 53 bills that Kennedy had submitted to Congress were enacted. A year later, 40 out of 54 bills that the Kennedy Administration had proposed were passed by Congress, and in 1963, 35 out of 58 "must" bills were enacted. As noted by Larry O'Brien, "A myth had arisen that he [Kennedy] was uninterested in Congress, or that he 'failed' with Congress. The facts, I believe, are otherwise. Kennedy's legislative record in 1961–63 was the best of any President since Roosevelt's first term."

However, the Independence Hall Association's website U.S. History.org describes then-Vice President and future U.S. president Lyndon Johnson's Great Society as the "largest reform agenda since Roosevelt's New Deal" and as what also managed to "complete the unfinished work of JFK's New Frontier." In his book John F. Kennedy on Leadership, John A. Barnes stated Congress in fact passed few of Kennedy's New Frontier proposals during his lifetime, with major initiatives not being enacted until 1964 and 1965, during Johnson's Presidency. The United States Department of Labor also stated that Johnson "immediately set about to enact the balance of Kennedy's New Frontier" after taking office following Kennedy's assassination. It has also been acknowledged that during his presidency, Kennedy had placed Johnson, a former Senate Majority Leader, in charge of getting his New Frontier proposals passed through Congress.

Advisors

Historians and political scientists were given prominent positions within the Kennedy administration. Several themes that were popular in the post-World War II American histories were apparent during the administration and also reflected in the television series Profiles in Courage. Arthur Schlesinger Jr. was an important figure in the post-war efforts to create a "moderately liberal domestic consensus". Beginning in 1961, Schlesinger served as a special assistant to Kennedy. He was a member of the liberal lobbying group Americans for Democratic Action and in 1949 he published The Vital Center, a book which has been described as "a manifesto for anticommunist liberals, defining an agenda that combined the social concerns of the New Deal with support for the Cold War policy of containment of Soviet power."

Within Schlesinger's analytical framework of the domestic politics of the United States during this period he identifies three main ideological currents: 1) what he calls the "vital center" are the "New Deal liberals" who had been gaining ground politically since 1933, 2) right-wing racial extremists mostly confined to the Southern regions of the United States, and 3) Communists who Schlesinger identifies as posing the "primary opposition to American values from within and without". Schlesinger, working on Kennedy's presidential campaign in 1960, sought an image of the candidate that would show the candidate's personal and individual accomplishment as counter to a collectivist ethos. Schlesinger's work along with Richard Neustadt's and other thinkers were key influences in the development of the New Frontier-era policies.

Taxation

Under the Kennedy Administration, the most significant tax reforms since the New Deal were carried out, including a new investment tax credit.</blockquote>

Kennedy specifically advocated cutting the corporate tax rate in this same speech. "Corporate tax rates must also be cut to increase incentives and the availability of investment capital. The Government has already taken major steps this year to reduce business tax liability and to stimulate the modernization, replacement, and expansion of our productive plant and equipment. We have done this through the 1962 investment tax credit and through the liberalization of depreciation allowances—two essential parts of our first step in tax revision which amounted to a 10 percent reduction in corporate income taxes worth $2.5 billion." President Kennedy went on to say he preferred tax cuts for the rich as well as the poor:

<blockquote>Next year's tax bill should reduce personal as well as corporate income taxes, for those in the lower brackets, who are certain to spend their additional take-home pay, and for those in the middle and upper brackets, who can thereby be encouraged to undertake additional efforts and enabled to invest more capital.</blockquote>

Labor

  • Amendments to the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1961 greatly expanded the FLSA's scope in the retail trade sector and increased the minimum wage for previously covered workers to $1.15 an hour effective September 1961 and to $1.25 an hour in September 1963. The minimum for workers newly subject to the Act was set at $1.00 an hour effective September 1961, $1.15 an hour in September 1964, and $1.25 an hour in September 1965. Retail and service establishments were allowed to employ full-time students at wages of no more than 15 percent below the minimum with proper certification from the Department of Labor. The amendments extended coverage to employees of retail trade enterprises with sales exceeding $1&nbsp;million annually, although individual establishments within those covered enterprises were exempt if their annual sales fell below $250,000. The concept of enterprise coverage was introduced by the 1961 amendments. Those amendments extended coverage in the retail trade industry from an established 250,000 workers to 2.2&nbsp;million. According to one study, "It was the first coverage extension of workers' hours and wages since 1938, the last year before the Conservative Coalition took philosophical control of Congress from Roosevelt's New Dealers."
  • An Executive Order was issued (1962) which provided federal employees with collective bargaining rights.
  • The services of US Employment Offices were expanded.
  • A Postal Service and Federal Employees Salary Act was passed (1962) to reform Federal white-collar statutory salary systems, adjust postal rates, and establish a standard for adjusting annuities under the Civil Service Retirement Act. This legislation marked the first time that a consistent guideline for regular increases was applied to the national pay scales for federal white-collar and postal employees.
  • The Contract Work Hours and Safety Standards Act (1962) established "standards for hours, overtime compensation, and safety for employees working on federal and federally funded contracts and subcontracts".
  • An 11-member Missile Site Labor Commission was established "to develop procedures for settling disputes on the government's 22 missile bases."
  • A pilot program was launched to train and place youths in jobs.
  • Paid overtime was granted to workers on government financed construction jobs for work in excess of 40 hours.
  • The Health Professions Educational Assistance Act (1963) provided $175&nbsp;million over a three-year period for matching grants for the construction of facilities for teaching physicians, dentists, nurses, podiatrists, optometrists, pharmacists, and other health professionals. The Act also created a loan program of up to $2000 per annum for students of optometry, dentistry, and medicine.
  • A law was enacted (1961) to encourage and facilitate the training of teachers of the deaf.
  • The Fulbright-Hays Act of 1961 enlarged the scope of the Fulbright program while extending it geographically.
  • An estimated one-third of all major New Frontier programs made some form of education a vital element, and the Office of Education called it "the most significant legislative period in its hundred-year history".

Welfare

  • Unemployment and welfare benefits were expanded.
  • In 1961, Social Security benefits were increased by 20% and provision for early retirement was introduced, enabling workers to retire at the age of sixty-two while receiving partial benefits.
  • The Social Security Amendments of 1961 permitted male workers to elect early retirement age 62, increased minimum benefits, liberalized the benefit payments to aged widow, widower, or surviving dependent parent, and also liberalized eligibility requirements and the retirement test.
  • The School Lunch Act was amended for authority to begin providing free meals in poverty-stricken areas.
  • Various school lunch and school milk programs were extended, "enabling 700,000 more children to enjoy a hot school lunch and eighty-five thousand more schools, child care centers, and camps to receive fresh milk".
  • Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) replaced the Aid to Dependent Children (ADC) program, as coverage was extended to adults caring for dependent children.
  • Social Security benefits were extended to an additional five million Americans.
  • The Public Welfare Amendments of 1962 provided for greater Federal sharing in the cost of rehabilitative services to applicants, recipients, and persons likely to become applicants for public assistance. It increased the Federal share in the cost of public assistance payments, and permitted the States to combine the various categories into one category. The amendments also made permanent the 1961 amendment which extended aid to dependent children to cover children removed from unsuitable homes.
  • An act was approved (1963) which extended for one year the period during which responsibility for the placement and foster care of dependent children, under the program of aid to families with dependent children under Title IV of the Social Security Act.

Civil rights

  • Various measures were carried out by the Kennedy Justice Department to enforce court orders and existing legislation. The Kennedy Administration promoted a Voter Education Project which led to 688,800 between 1 April 1962 and 1 November 1964, while the Civil Rights Division brought over forty-two suits in four states in order to secure voting rights for Black people. In addition, Kennedy supported the anti-poll tax amendment, which cleared Congress in September 1962 (although it was not ratified until 1964 as the Twenty-fourth Amendment). As noted by one student of Black voting in the South, in relation to the attempts by the Kennedy Administration to promote civil rights, "Whereas the Eisenhower lawyers had moved deliberately, the Kennedy-Johnson attorneys pushed the judiciary far more earnestly."
  • Executive Order 10925 (issued in 1961) combined the federal employment and government contractor agencies into a unified Committee on Equal Employment opportunity (CEEO). This new committee helped to put an end to segregation and discriminatory employment practices (such as only employing African Americans for low-skilled jobs) in a number of workplaces across the United States.
  • The Senior Citizens Housing Act (1962) established loans for low-rent apartment projects which were "designed to meet the needs of people age 62 and over".
  • The first accelerated public works program for areas of unemployment since the New Deal was launched.

Health

  • In 1963, Kennedy, who had a mentally ill sister named Rosemary, submitted the nation's first presidential special message to Congress on mental health issues. Congress quickly passed the Mental Retardation Facilities and Community Mental Health Centers Construction Act (P.L. 88-164), beginning a new era in Federal support for mental health services. The National Institute of Mental Health assumed responsibility for monitoring community mental health centers programs. This measure was a great success as there was a sixfold increase in people using Mental Health facilities.
  • A Medical Health Bill for the Aged (later known as Medicare) was proposed, but Congress failed to enact it.
  • The Community Health Services and Facilities Act (1961) increased the amount of funds available for nursing home construction and extended the research and demonstration grant program to other medical facilities.
  • The Health Services for Agricultural Migratory Workers Act (1962) established "a program of federal grants for family clinics and other health services for migrant workers and their families".
  • The Social Security Act Amendments of 1963 improved medical services for disabled children and established a new project grant program to improve prenatal care for women from low-income families with very high risks of mental disability and other birth defects. Authorizations for grants to the states under the Maternal and Child Health and Crippled Children's programs were also increased and a research grant program was added.
  • The Mental Retardation Facilities Construction Act of 1963 authorized federal support for the construction of university-affiliated training facilities, mental disability research centers, and community service facilities for adults and children with mental disability. The commission, chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt until her death in 1962, was composed of 26 members including legislators, labor union activists and philanthropists who were active in women's rights issues. The main purpose of the committee was to document and examine employment policies in place for women. The commission's final report, American Woman (also known as the Peterson Report after the commission's second chair, Esther Peterson), was issued in October 1963 and documented widespread discrimination against women in the workplace. Among the practices addressed by the group were labor laws pertaining to hours and wages, the quality of legal representation for women, the lack of education and counseling for working women, and federal insurance and tax laws that affected women's incomes. Recommendations included affordable child care for all income levels, hiring practices that promoted equal opportunity for women, and paid maternity leave.

The commission, reflecting the views of Roosevelt and the labor unions, opposed the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). They feared the ERA would end the special privileges needed by women and accorded to women that were not given to men.

In the early 1960s, full-time working women were paid on average 59 percent of the earnings of their male counterparts. In order to eliminate some forms of sex-based pay discrimination, Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act into law on June 10, 1963. During the law's first ten years, 171,000 employees received back pay totaling about 84&nbsp;million dollars.

Environment

  • The Clean Air Act (1963) expanded the powers of the federal government in preventing and controlling air pollution.
  • The first major additions to the National Park System since 1946 were made, which included the preservation of wilderness areas and a fund for future acquisitions.

Agriculture

  • A new Housing Act of 1961 extended the Farmers Home Administration housing loan assistance for the first time to nonfarm rural residents and providers of low-cost housing for domestic farm laborers. The Farmers Home Administration was therefore able to expand its rural housing loans from less than $70&nbsp;million to nearly $500&nbsp;million in 1965, or about enough to provide for 50,000 new or rehabilitated housing units.
  • A 1962 farm bill expanded government food donation programs at home and abroad and provided federal aid to farmers who converted crop land to nonfarm income-producing uses.
  • Title III of the Food and Agriculture Act of 1962 consolidated and expanded existing loan programs, thereby providing the Farmers Home Administration with increased flexibility in helping a broader spectrum of credit-risky farmers to purchase land and amass working capital. In addition, the Farmers Home Administration assumed responsibility for community water system loans.

Crime

Under Kennedy, the first significant package of anticrime bills since 1934 were passed.